sounds like a tv slogan.

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GWB: "I didn't compromise my soul to be a popular guy."

honor the fallen;
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Iraq body count
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By Norman Schwarzkopf
"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do; the hard part is doing it."

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The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

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The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

The symbolism in Western Traditions of Winter Solstice are many and varied. I’d like to share my favourites with you.

The Yule Tree – whoops! The Christians nicked it! - is traditional. Hollies, ivies and evergreen trees were seen as symbols of eternal life - always green, always renewed, a metaphor for the immortal Soul. Appropriate decorations for your Yule tree would include small apples and oranges, cinnamon sticks, popcorn or cranberry strings, icicles and snowflakes.

Phoebe, the Hippie Chick on ‘Friends’, saw cut evergreen trees as “fulfilling their Christmas destiny”. If you don’t see it that way, you do have other choices. You can buy a small potted tree and then later plant it outside, or grow it on your patio. Decorate a live tree with ribbons and gifts to wild creatures such as bread and birdseed balls. Never ever use unpopped corn, uncooked rice or other ‘human’ seeds/grains. These can swell inside the bird and kill!

The wreath is another symbol – it represents the Wheel of the Year as it turns, and the evergreens again are the eternal cycle! If you decide to cut branches from living hollies or evergreens, always ask permission of the Spirit of the tree first. If you feel a positive response, do so with care and respect for the tree, and always thank it and leave a small offering behind – maybe some seeds or bread for the creatures who share its bounty. Remember to only take living branches in areas where it is permitted.

Lighting the Yule log symbolises the return of light. Each year, a portion of the log is preserved to use for lighting next year’s log. This is one more allusion to rebirth. We need to remember our ancestors were simple people and needed these visual representations of their beliefs.

Yule is the time of the greatest darkness and the shortest day of the year. Some Pagans celebrate Yule just before dawn, then watch the sunrise as a fitting finale to their celebrations. As with any form of creation, birth can take a long time, so I like to be off from work for several days. I try to meditate and project loving energy as the time for renewal and rebirth approaches.

Giving gifts was a way people could share the bounty and good fortune they had been blessed with. Also it showed good planning and management to have enough to share at bleak midwinter! And what do you suppose is the source of that ultimate gift-giver Santa Claus? Well, my Best Beloved, he was the ancient Shaman of the North whose people were the followers of the reindeer herds. They got everything from the reindeer...clothing, food, shelter…and used them as part of their essential mysticism as well. The Shamans knew all about a red mushroom with white spots., and that besides being a terrific hallucinogenic, it was also poisonous – but not to the reindeer, who happily ate them right along with the moss that grew at the feet of silver birch trees. Sooo…wait for this! The Shamans let the reindeer eat the mushrooms, then drank the reindeer urine, which retained the drug, but had filtered out the poison! So Santa was a Shaman originally and he did fly with help from reindeer! But it sort of gives a whole new meaning to getting pissed! Ho. Ho. Ho. Groovy.


Written by Mommawhitecougar. Visit her website here for more literature: MySpace.com Blogs - MommaWhiteCougar MySpace Blog

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The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

__________________


The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

__________________


The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

__________________


The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

__________________


The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

__________________


The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.

Christmas Trees and Plants

The tree was an important symbol to every Pagan culture. The oak in particular was venerated by the Druids. Evergreens, which in ancient Rome were thought to have special powers and were used for decoration, symbolized the promised return of life in the spring and came to symbolize eternal life for Christians. The Vikings hung fir and ash trees with war trophies for good luck.
In the middle ages, the Church would decorate trees with apples on Christmas Eve, which they called "Adam and Eve Day." However, the trees remained outdoors. In sixteenth-century Germany, it was the custom for a fir tree decorated with paper flowers to be carried though the streets on Christmas Eve to the town square, where, after a great feast and celebration that included dancing around the tree, it would be ceremonially burned.
Holly, ivy, and mistletoe were all important plants to the Druids. It was believed that good spirits lived in the branches of holly. Christians believed that the berries had been white before they were turned red by Christ's blood when He was made to wear the crown of thorns. Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages, when a superstition that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague arose.

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The human's mind is like a garden. It may not be time to plant the truth in your mind. Perhaps you need some weeding or ground preparation, before the garden of your mind is ready. Perhaps the weather is too stormy to plant the truth.